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Possibly the most significant addition in the upcoming Divinity: Original Sin 2 Definitive Edition is the overhaul of the game's third act, which was criticized for its lack of content in the original release. The guys at PCGamesN had a look at this new content recently, in particular the expanded questline for dwarven pirate companion Beast. Here's their preview article, accompanied by a video interview with Larian combat designer Edouard Imbert.

How do you improve on the most ambitious RPG of the decade? It’s a question that’s faced Larian Studios ever since it released Divinity: Original Sin 2 last year, and one that no doubt overshadows whatever the Belgian developer produces next. Yet Larian is not solely focused on the future, and as such, that very same question has been applied to Divinity itself. The result is Divinity: Original Sin 2 Definitive Edition: an enhanced version that further improves what is already one of the finest videogames ever made. And, as anyone who has played the original version will know, this means Larian has made a very good game indeed.

Revised versions are not new ground for the studio. The first Divinity: Original Sin was relaunched with an ‘Enhanced Edition’, and the changes were significant: a new ending, totally rebalanced combat, additional difficulty levels, and full voice acting being chief among them. On the surface, there’s less need for Original Sin 2 to receive such an overhaul, yet the changes demonstrate Larian’s obsession with detail and pursuit of perfection. As such, 150,000 new words have been written for the game, adding to or modifying existing dialogue to expand and enhance the story. And that’s just the headline.

Much of the new work has been applied to Arx, the city setting of the game’s concluding chapter, based on feedback that informed Larian of loose ends that needed tying up and elements further clarified. The city is where many characters see their final quests unfold, including that of Beast - the dwarven pirate attempting to prevent a Deathfog genocide orchestrated by his own monarch. Larian recognises that Beast was underwritten in comparison to the likes of Lohse, Sebille, and The Red Prince, and so significant time has been spent overhauling not only his backstory, but the threads of his questline.

Word of warning: if you’ve not experienced Beast’s questline, or the city of Arx, you may want to skip to the conclusion. Spoilers lie beyond here.

The city now features far more ‘breadcrumbing’ of quest information to foreshadow Queen Justinia’s Deathfog plot. Beast can find a fellow dwarf in the city who will provide a key to the sewers, whereas before many players found themselves simply stumbling upon the underground home of Justinia’s evil plan. If you’ve played this quest you’ll also know that the plot is in fact the brainchild of royal hand Isbeil, not Justinia, and thus Isbeil is name dropped several times prior in order to build up to the moment of her betrayal.

Further aiding in foreshadowing and atmosphere, segments of Arx’s sewer network have been redesigned. Booby-trapped teddy bears are strewn around the environment, signalling that the tunnels are inhabited, and foreshadowing the gang of children that you later find near the Deathfog stockpiles. Shadow effects point to huge turbine fans rotating above the isometric map, indicating that the sewers are the perfect place to vent deadly gas into a city. Redesigned assets help cement the area as sewer system, as opposed to simply a wet dungeon. These are small but significant changes, all contributing to Larian’s need for perfection.

Upon reaching the doomsday device itself an even more notable redesign rears its head. Rather than the original game’s valve in a wall, the Deathfog disperser is now a colossal machine; two huge vats of fog plumbed into a meters-wide brass turbine. It even gets a cutscene introduction. Coupled with this is an added moral quandary. Previously, you could opt to leave the machine alone or destroy Arx - a simple binary choice. In Definitive Edition, the machine is leaking and is thus a problem to be solved: do you vent the Deathfog into the city, or into the sea? Both have consequences, and so a bit of internal soul searching is required to conclude the quest.
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Eurogamer have their own preview of the Definitive Edition, which is less detailed but does mention that the game's second act has been expanded somewhat as well. There was also something about a revamped arena mode last week, but we don't care about that.

Yeah, BG was a hardcore RPG, especially compared to the casual shite like Realms of Arkania, Wizardry, and Darklands.

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If you cannot get into Mass Effect n Dragon Age, perhaps RPG's are not you're stuff? Or give Oblivion a try, Bethesda usualy made there games for casual players not like Bioware that stickies to more hardcore oldschool RPG mecanics of deep, engrossing storylines and character delvopement.

Infinitron
everyone focused on how 3rd act is bad but in my opinion it was not worst. 1st and 3rd act had a balance of quests/combat/exploration.

Which is not to say of act2. From my understanding all the reviewers finished act1 and went to a2 into best hub in the game.
As no one describes what happens next i can only assume that this is where most finish the game. It was similar for Darth Roxor
Once you leave best hub in the game you enter largest act in the game... that is nothing but combat. Sure on occasion you will find some damsel but it all will lead to combat. Story narrative at a time is 'go into the woods and git gut'. Behind each rock you get a rumor of some powerful being and be like 'this is it! He/She/It will surely help me git gut!'.
There is even a counter: git gut 3 times. By the time you randomly find mcguffin to progress a story you will git gut 6 or so times.
Half way through you will wonder when will it finally end hoping that each hill is the last one.

Infinitron
everyone focused on how 3rd act is bad but in my opinion it was not worst. 1st and 3rd act had a balance of quests/combat/exploration.

Which is not to say of act2. From my understanding all the reviewers finished act1 and went to a2 into best hub in the game.
As no one describes what happens next i can only assume that this is where most finish the game. It was similar for Darth Roxor
Once you leave best hub in the game you enter largest act in the game... that is nothing but combat. Sure on occasion you will find some damsel but it all will lead to combat. Story narrative at a time is 'go into the woods and git gut'. Behind each rock you get a rumor of some powerful being and be like 'this is it! He/She/It will surely help me git gut!'.
There is even a counter: git gut 3 times. By the time you randomly find mcguffin to progress a story you will git gut 6 or so times.
Half way through you will wonder when will it finally end hoping that each hill is the last one.

Click to expand...

I'm confused. Is Act II the act where you learn Sauce mastery or the nameless isle?
I wouldn't mind having the latter expanded since the lores behind the deities are still sketchy. I haven't try another play through with Fane however so maybe I'm just missing out contents.

I'm confused. Is Act II the act where you learn Sauce mastery or the nameless isle?
I wouldn't mind having the latter expanded since the lores behind the deities are still sketchy. I haven't try another play through with Fane however so maybe I'm just missing out contents.

Click to expand...

nameless isle is a3. From my memory it was mainly lore dumps hidden behind exploration... which is a fine thing but at that time i really wanted another hub with quests and investigations to do.